Saturday, 14 February 2015

Little Quilts on the Go

stitching pretty fabrics together on the JUKI HZL Exceed 600

I love to make Valentine postcard quilts. Most postcard tutorials show how to make the postcards one-by-one, but this post will show how to use a machine quilting frame to create lots of postcards at the same time. First, I go through my stash and pick out reds, pinks and heart fabrics and stitch them together.

Machine quilting hearts and loops on the 6 foot New English Quilter with the JUKI TL98P

Then I load the pieced top on my New English Quilter frame with some fleece underneath to serve as backing and wadding.

scalloped machine quilting detail stitched with the JUKI TL98P on the New English Quilter frame

Then I choose pretty pink and red threads from the Superior Threads range and 'draw' scallops around the hearts or doodle loops and hearts over the pieced top to create texture.

Notice the gorgeous machine quilting threads, from Superior Threads in the background. I'm using Fantastico.

Creating the line designs with thread on the fabric 'canvas' is the fun part!

machine quilting hearts and loops detail with Fantastico #5031

This is a fun way to try out lots of different designs and play with lots of different threads.

Next, make the postcard backing. There are postcard templates that can be downloaded, scaled to various sizes and then printed on your home printer. Use an old dull blade and your ruler and mat to rotary cut the postcards for a professional look.

cutting out the postcard backings with the rotary cutter, ruler and mat

Now take your postcard backings and find some nice parts of your quilted top.

Use them as templates and cut up your quilted top to fit lots of little postcards.

I use scissors to snip round the first time.

Then I straight stitch round the postcard,

Then use the sharp rotary cutter blade to tidy the edges.

Then finally go back to the machine and zig-zag around the edges.

Zig-zaging round the edges with the JUKI Exceed 600 using variegated Fantastico thread

the fabric front and the postcard backing are all stitched together

Now they're all ready to write your notes and pop in the post. My postmistress was so impressed. Posting costs just the same as an ordinary postcard or letter and they travel all over the world!

machine quilted postcards all stitched and ready to go

If you want to hand-deliver the postcards you can find and print your own stamps.

Fabric postcards with a heart stamp for hand delivery

I probably spent more time writing this blog post than making the postcards! The NEQ quilting frame makes it possible to make lots of cards quickly and beautifully. What fun to make little quilts that get to travel all over the world! Once you've made some you'll think of all sort of other themes and occasions to make and send machine quilted postcards. For other postcard ideas visit my 'Going Places' pinterest board.

Our Own Table Top Frame

La Mer DVD

Fantastic threads designed for machine quilting

About Me

Born and raised in Baltimore, Maryland, married an English man and raised 6 children in Lincolnshire,UK. I'm keen to make American innovations in machine quilting more readily accessible to the English quilter. I take a folk art approach, helping ordinary people achieve extraordinary results. I've been developing, demonstrating and teaching hand-guided free-motion machine quilting techniques since 2003.